Codio web-based coding platform allows software developers to write and execute code for free using just a browser

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Freddy May, Founder and MD of Codio

New from Application Craft UK is Codio, a powerful web based coding platform, commonly known as an IDE, that allows software developers to write and execute code for free using just a browser. Unlike web-based code editors, Codio automatically and instantly creates a dedicated virtual server for each individual coding project. This allows developers of any skill level to build both front-end and back-end applications in almost any programming language.

Ideal for professional, full stack developers who want to take advantage of the many benefits that a cloud-based coding platform offers, Codio comes with many common languages and developer tools pre-installed and allows additional components and stacks to be installed with single commands.

Benefits include the ability to develop on any machine that has a browser, freeing users from the single machine setup familiar to most developers. Each project also has its own dedicated server, reducing the complexities of having multiple, often conflicting, project stacks on a single machine. Furthermore a project and its development stack is clonable, so each stack, once installed and configured, can be shared with other people, significantly reducing setup time each time other developers want to create the same stack.

Each Codio project is pre-installed with NodeJS, Ruby, Python, Java and C compilers as well as Git and Mercurial and other developer tools. Codio’s “Box Parts” allow stacks to be installed with a single command. For example, 'parts install php5 mysql apache2' is all that is needed to install a complete LAMP stack in about 20 seconds. Codio's collaboration features allow a project owner to grant access to others, who can then instantly access, edit and execute that user's project without any local stack setup.

Available formerly in BETA format only, the site which was launched officially today has already attracted over 40,000 developers who use it for HTML5, CSS and Javascript development at the front end. At the back end there is significant usage in NodeJS, Ruby, PHP as well as many other languages such as Go, Haskell, Ocaml. It is free to users happy to share their content and just $8 per month for those who wish to keep their work private.

Montreal's McGill University, ranked in the top 25 universities in the world, uses Codio for its McGill’s “McHacks” hackathons, Canada’s largest ever student hackathon. Organiser, Mark Prokoudine, said, “We have looked at various Web IDEs and Codio clearly stands out as the best and is now widely used by the McGill “Hacker” community. Chomebooks are being used more and more in schools and universities as a more affordable option than Macs and PCs, so having a great Web IDE like Codio is essential.”

Commenting on the launch, Freddy May, Founder, said, “Codio greatly simplifies many aspects of the software development process and encourages portability and collaboration. I was delighted to see the BETA version receive the thumbs up from the development community and am thrilled to officially launch the platform today.”